Paying homage in the context of a media work is the recreation of one work of fiction in the context of another, with the referencing done as an ‘inside joke’ or an ‘easter egg’ for those familiar with the referenced work. Often this is done with the intention of honoring or paying respect to the referenced work as being the direct inspiration for the referencing one. When done well — that is when the execution of the sequence becomes more than just a derivation and becomes a powerful scene on its own, without making familiarity with the referenced work contingent to the enjoyment of the scene. Familiarity with the original work though, can and does add significant value especially for a dedicated fan.

Recently I’ve had conversations and have read random articles noting the trend of referencing anime, and how the value of these works are not necessarily correct relative to their acclaim and/or popularity (e.g. Lucky Star, Kannagi). Against a universal measure or standard, I can sympathize with ‘correcting’ the assessment of the value of these shows, but on the whole I like them a lot, Lucky Star in particular precisely because of the light-hearted referencing of anime, manga, and other otaku cultural products. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is another highly acclaimed and very popular title that indulges heavily in referencing and homage. Very few (if any at all) complain about TTGL’s referential behavior, I do however believe that it is exceeded by far by another work.

Several parts of the aquatic fight against Adiane where an homage to the fight against the aquatic angel from the eigth episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, most noticably defeating the aquatic Gunmen by firing at it with battleship cannons at point-blank range and the cross-shape explosion it makes.

This is all good, and I do think that these visual and perhaps superficial references are the loving touches that make them entertaining and/or significant. But yes, there’s more. In a previous post I’ve attempted to demonstrate how Eureka SeveN is an excellent demonstration of love remembered for Mobile Suit Gundam through it’s character Holland Novak as a play on iconic Gundam characters Bright Noa and Char Aznable/Quattro Bajeena. Here I will highlight a different homage, a personal favorite due to the strong opinions I’ve had both positive and negative for the referenced material.

Rals, Beams, Runaways, Revenge, and failed Redemption

Amuro runs away, Renton runs away. From my earliest articles on Gundam I’ve written about Amuro’s flight from the White Base as one of the more deplorable actions done by a lead character.

I was particularly upset with Amuro in this arc. I do believe that his running away was an atrocious act. Not only did he desert in the desert, he stole the Gundam and buried it in a hole. He had no plan and didn’t even know where he was headed. He didn’t even bring provisions! Conveniently for the plot the town of Sodon was near enough to walk to which set up the meeting between Amuro and Ramba (and Lady Hamon) in a small saloon. LOLTOMINO plot convenience.

Amuro runs away primarily because he overheard Bright and Mirai discuss the pitfalls in highlightning how Amuro is the only person who can pilot the Gundam. Amuro takes this as a betrayal and runs away, taking the Gundam with him. Eureka SeveN thankfully chose different motivations/reasons for Renton to leave. It’s important to note too that Renton is the only person who can pilot the Nirvash with Eureka (or even without her, which is significant); even more importantly, Renton is treated far, far worse in the Gekko-go compared to Amuro in the White Base. Renton is hazed and picked on from all fronts, trolled and bullied even by his own sympathizers.

Renton left due to an amalgamation of the following events and his resulting emotions:

He believed Holland was not doing enough to save Eureka who was ill. Talho straightened him out: “For him, Eureka was always more important. More than the waves, more than me… and probably more than his own life too!”

Renton runs away because he felt smaller than Holland — who is one of the two things Eureka trusts (Holland and the Nirvash). He felt unworthy of Eureka. Amuro ran away because he felt unappreciated and held on an overvalued sense of self. Renton ran away because of guilt, saying: “I’m just a kid. I don’t know anything! I’m just a kid!”

But first, he saves holland! He utters a refrain: “I’m just a kid. I’m just a kid who can’t do anything. But… I didn’t know anything, about Holland… about Eureka… about anything. I knew nothing!”

Renton hates himself for acting in his ignorance, and kills many pilots in their LFOs in a fit of berserk rage. This is something that he will deeply regret.

While the guilt for not taking care of Eureka in a way that will earn him her reliance (the way Holland does it) is the initial impetus for running away. He actually gets to protect her (and Holland). However, his guilt becomes horrifying after he realizes that he has become a ruthless killer. The image of the severed arm with a wedding ring among the corpses he left on the field got to him (a refrain sung again in Ray Beam’s final moments).

I’m not suggesting that Renton is a superior character than Amuro, only that he is a more nuanced and developed character than Amuro within a context of a 50 episode anime. Amuro will undergo a lot of growing up and do a lot of awesome things in the sequels (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and Char’s Counterattack), which is not to say that Amuro doesn’t kick ass in Mobile Suit Gundam.

I could go on and on and profile the distinctions and nuances of the primary players in the respective anime arcs of these shows, but at this point I will submit a summary of the references and some of my impressions.

Table of Similarities/References

Particulars

Gundam

Eureka SeveN

Lead character runs away

Amuro runs away and steals the Gundam, buries it in a hole in the middle of nowhere.

Renton runs away, steals Moondoggie’s backpack which gets stolen anyway by another vagabond while Renton sleeps at a pedestrian shelter.

Chance meeting between lead character and enemies

Having run out of provisions (not having brought any) Amuro steps into a saloon, where Ramba Ral and Hamon Crowley bring their unit for a meal.

Renton wanders to a daytime rave party where Charles Beams was partying. He takes him along with him.

Enemies take a liking to the lead character

Ramba admires Amuro’s guts when he sees him armed and prepared to fight when Fraw Bow was in apparent danger at the hands of Ramba’s troops.

Charles and Ray Beams take to a very strong liking to Renton and treat him very kindly and responsibly contrasting sharply with the treatment he got in the Gekko-go.

Female enemy longs for a child, like the lead

Ramba asks hamon directly: “Do you like a child like that of your own?”

Charles and Ray insist that Renton call them ‘Papa’ and ‘Mama.’ In addition, the two of them behave with such kindness and understanding Renton has never received in his life.

Charles is killed by Holland who pumps his guts full of submachine gun fire at point blank. A captured Ray later asks to get close to the body, but detonates a bomb on it. She uses the explosion to get away from her captors.

Female enemy valorously continues the mission at decreased odds

The remnants of Ramba’s command isn’t really much to challenge the White Base with, considering that the WB did not incur significant human or material losses. Hamon does well for herself actually, which was awesome to witness.

Ray took on the Gekko-go in a frontal assault all by herself. This woman is bad-ass. The battle that ensued was very intense viewing for me.

Female enemy gets killed while performing a suicide attack

It took Ryu’s suicide attack with a core fighter to stop Hamon from destroying the Gundam and killing Amuro by firing an explosive shell at point blank range.

Holland shoots Ray in her cockpit while she almosts succeeds in ramming the Gekko-go with her own mobile base. Her final moments reaching for her severed arm to hold on to her wedding ring for the last time is heartrending.

Part of what I love about Gundam is that its stories are such fertile ground to grow other stories from. The Beams’ story arc in Eureka SeveN is one of my favorites and elements such as Eureka being the cause of Ray’s inability to conceive and that being such a big deal for the Beams add a powerful layer of tragedy to the story. Even more, how they treated Renton as a son with such heartbreaking compassion, understanding, and maturity really tore me up. Even to the very end, when the Beams let Renton go and make the choices of a man, and yet love him to their deaths… these things will never leave me. Contrast this with how wretchedly Holland treated him up to that point (and a little further beyond) and you have even more pathos.

Mobile Suit Gundam had some of this too, with Sayla Mass growing up with Ramba Ral’s family and he getting shot trying to call out to her, which led to his eventual death. So Eureka SeveN had to do much more than copy the elements. The characters they introduced are far more sympathetic (to me at least), and were allowed to behave in very fallible ways (without tarnishing their charm). Their portrayal allowed far-reaching characterization that set up the tragedy quite beautifully. I didn’t care much for the Ramba Ral arc save for Ramba being of a class of manly soldier seldom seen in contemporary anime. Eureka SeveN made me remember Gundam with more fondness, made me appreciate Ramba and Lady Hamon and their place in the Gundam mythology.

I’m very fond of the idea of newer works serving as an entry point to discovering older creators and works, an entire genre, or even an entire medium. Outside of anime we have video games such as Rock Band, and Guitar Hero who introduce ‘classic’ rock to a new generation of fans; related to this is how many mecha fans are familiar with a large number of robots, and a fair bit of their backgrounds and stories without actually having seen them yet through the Super Robot Wars franchise of video games. These games make the older works accessible. I think shows like Eureka SeveN, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann can be used awesomely as introductions to mecha anime in general. The love is strong in these shows.

I was late to the party in regards to Eureka 7. I just finished watching this series yesterday and was amazed at how good it was. The show is only 4 years old or so but it seemed so much older. The level of quality in both storytelling, characters and art makes it seems like it was made over 10 years ago.

What I am really trying to say is that most anime production houses don’t make ’em like this anymore. The only thing I can think of that comes close to Eureka 7 within the last couple of years is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and for the same reason you pointed out in your post.

Both borrow liberally from their space-opera, mecha roots and created something wonderful and new. Because when its all said and done a new thing is nothing but a bunch of old things done in different and creative ways.

The Eureka 7 movie Pocket Full of Rainbows is out now but I also hearrd it is a total retcon of the story. Judging by the advanced reviews from some sites it just doesn’t measure up. I hope the early reviewers are wrong because Eureka 7 really made my weekend. I will be terribly disappointed if it does not live up to its predecessor.

Homage is something I also appreciate a lot, and while I haven’t seen either Lucky Star or Kannagi, I don’t think it’s something that would really bother me. A few of the parallels you mention I recognized in Eureka seveN, but it’s also been a long time since I’ve seen Mobile Suit Gundam (and I had dropped it, way back when), so I guess I didn’t appreciate them as much as I could have.

LOL I started the flaming at your post. Rest assured that I truly respect your experience of the show and I thank you for indulging your own feelings in your review which gives me the opportunity to have fun flaming your small form coralian ass. ^_^

very nice point about how these shows can introduce a new audience to old shows. I think I am a very great example of that case in point, seeing as I’ve watched a lot of old anime to see their influence on my favorites.

Thanks. This whole idea is becoming more important as I build an overall approach to anime appreciation (‘remembering love’).

I find myself continually amazed at how a lot of much younger anime fans (i.e. Schneider) have more extensive knowledge and appreciation of obscure mecha titles and super robot shows. I think shows like TTGL, Turn A Gundam, and Eureka SeveN are great gateways. But for mecha in particular, I think the Super Robot Wars series of games make the biggest difference.

Great comparison. Although i din fully watch Mobile Suit Gundam but I kinda know Amuro’s characters from other source. personally i prefer Renton over Amuro, both of them are kick ass but Renton is more realistic and “romantic”.

IMO, Amuro is a typical spoil brat that thinks he can do anything and everyone will rely on him because of his little talent. Even steal the Gundam with him!!! he really don’t have any idea this will kill the whole ship because of his actions.

Eureka & Renton are my favourite anime pairing so my comment might be a little bit bias. But the series clearly shows that how a kid slowly change his mind set. from a little kid that seek for freedom & rely on others to a man that be responsible & brave for what he want to achive.

You should check out the Eureka Seven Movie for the alternative story. It is more towards Eureka’s development. I love ur reviews ;D

While I see the similarities between the two series, I always felt that life aboard the Gekko was like life inside a frat house with Holland and Talho acting like house father and mother while Amuro’s military life is much more structured and ordered (I haven’t watched MSG in about 10 years so my memory might be a little rusty. I also feel that by the end of MSG, Amuro is as a person and as a warrior more mature about his role and actions than Renton was by the end of Eureka 7.

Amuro, by the time you meet him in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam will still have a lot of growing up to do. Not to say that he didn’t get to be awesome in MSG. He didn’t have to take on the role of father or head of the family and make decisions that way. His decisions were about fighting.

Renton had to deal with disappearing from the world, he was offered a taste of what Dianne and Adrock had and chose strife because that’s what was the best for everyone else even if he’d have to risk Eureka’s and his own life (and the kids’) to do it.

Note also that Renton was ever ready to forgive and redeem Anemone (the pilot of the other Nirvash), while Amuro wanted to kill Char until the very end.

“Her final moments reaching for her severed arm to hold on to her wedding ring for the last time is heartrending.” That was definitely THE moment for me in that series. The whole time I watched that arc I was thinking, “there is NO WAY they’re going to completely do the Rambal Ral arc, are they?” Even as a Gundam & not Eureka 7 fan, I have to say it was done better and with more emotion than it’s predecessor.

The comparison between Amuro & Renton is a very good one, too. While I, at times, prayed for a good Brightslapping for Amuro & much of the crew. I had much more sympathy for Renton. I wanted to slap some courage & self esteem INTO him. Instead of slapping the arrogance & cowardice OUT of Amuro.

Finally, Dominic x Anemone was my fav pairing. I don’t know how he could stay with that broken, pscyhotic, schitzo (sp?) b*tch. But I didn’t turn away & wanted it to work.

personally in my opinion Eureka seven has more gundam in it than most of that alternate universe crap sunrise came up with in the recent years. from renton being a mechanic, nirvash’s spec 2 being zeta, and all those slapping applied, to dewy being an asshole like Paptimus Scirocco played with everything from behind the scenes, to a colony lazer being used, to a ‘cloning’ lab down in warsaw that duplicates eureka, to the fact that lolicons are used as pilots, and of course gekko crashing itself head first into ginga’s bridge. oh god i think i need to watch e7 again. before i saw this i thought i might have been the only person who have noticed, its good to know i wasnt the only one, you sir is indeed awesome

Yeah, good observations man… I’m in the middle of my rewatch and I’ve just reached the beginning of the arc I talk about in this post.

Thanks for the compliments! I’m not fond of the contemporary AU Gundam shows (I pan them mercilessly in this blog), but I am a Gundam fan through and through so even if I am quite vicious towards these shows I still love them as a fan of the franchise as a whole.

Finally got into this series, just made it past the halfway point. Surprise surprise, the mountains of praise heaped on this show is entirely justified. My only genuine complaint is that much of the actual plot details and world background have a tendency to be infodumped on the viewer. Case in point, Talho to Renton: “Eureka’s an alien, Holland wanted to be her magical fuck buddy (hence the beating you up), and if we mess up, all life on Earth will end. Also, aliens exist. Pretty odd thing to drop this late into the series, but blame BONES, not me.”

The slow build up was a little frustrating, but it made the high gear stuff all the more compelling. Love the characters, love their relationships, love the world, love the atmosphere, love the humour, love it. And I loved this entire arc, as you say it really builts on what came before it instead of rehashing it. They made you love the Beams, and then they killed them off in the most gut wrenching fashion imagineable. Just the little things like them getting Renton a mug with his name on it, another knife twist in my heart for them.

Taking a brief raincheck for the the last 20 eps, small problem with my DVDs. In the meantime I’m finally getting round to Zeta, and I have to say, 20 episodes in and its fairly pedestrian stuff. Humdrum action and very little to distinguish it so far from the original series. I KNOW that there’s a fuck ton of stuff to come, Scirocco’s path to power via pimpage, Yazan and his merry band, Quattro stepping up to the plate as leader for the AEUG, Neo Zeon turning Gryps into a three way war an Haman’s closure issues et al; I’m just a bit disapointed that it took so long for the show to get to the really good stuff.

Hehe, BONES is not known for managing exposition very well (see RahXephon, also Xam’d: Lost Memories; both are worse examples).

The Beams arc is just one for the fucking ages. It’s also so very, very cool how they did their 2-man assault on the Gekko. It’s just super-duper cool. The whole showdown felt like an action film finale.

As for Z, tsk tsk tsk

The first few eps were a fantastic exercise in madness: how can you not appreciate the mess of the AEUG due to the incredible doucheyness of the TITANS. If you’ve seen 0083 it really falls into place. The TITANS are evil, sure. But they’re not vile space Nazis like Gihren’s Zeon, but rather fucking bullies, jocks like Monsha having control of the Federation. Bright Noa getting beat up was rage-inducing. That was just GRRRR. Also, Jerid. Jerid Mesa is a full fifth of my enjoyment of this show. You know he could’ve been cool, but NO. He got Kamilled and that’s going to be the thing that drives his existence.

Also, the opening arcs of Z wrote the book on how to integrate the previous series in a sequel. Everything all the way to Kai Shiden was handled expertly. Amuro man, oh man. That was cool shit, and it’ll get better. There is nothing run-of-the-mill in Z Gundam. Some of the mills were made by Tomino here in Z Gundam. Jesus Christ Tomino: CHAR GETS TO ATACK JABURO AND WIN.

I got the chaotic feeling from these first eps, but I didn’t get any satisfaction from it. The Titans are scumbags alright, but compared to Zeon’s efficient Space Nazism, they come across as outright incompetent. Be it brutalising one of the greatest Feddy Captains of all time (Bask let a freaking Corporal beat him up, for God’s sake! Are they TRYING to alienate their only allies?), or the odd way their best pilots either keep defecting to the AEUG or get their asses handed to them by Kamille. Zeon was an evil foe capable of the odd moment of dignitiy, the Titans are just pathetic murderers and beneath contempt. Possibly what Tomino was going for, but it doesn’t make them a viable threat to me the viewer. They confuse ruthlessness and intimidation with competence and loyalty.

Especially when they blow up Jaburo in a fit of pique, and still fail to do any lasting damage to the AEUG. “Yeah, that base that’s a symbol of unwavering resistance against Spacenoids and a source of pride to the Federation military? We blew it up. We’re gonna make this kick-ASS new base on Mount Kilimanjiro, and its gonna have surround sound, and a jacuzzi, and a salad bar, and its gonna make that faggy ass old base look like a smouldering heap of nuclear irridated slag.” Forget Zeon’s silver bullets, the Titans have all the fiscal responsibililty of a monkey in charge of a banana factory.

The stuff with the original cast was indeed excellent, but it only served to make the new cast bland by comparison. Kai’s a superspy journalist! Amuro’s a guilt ridden veteran! Hayato rubs the fact that he got Fraw’s sweet ass all to himself in Amuro’s face! Sayla!… has disappeared off the face of the universe. And Beltochirka is a bland substitute for what her role should have been e.g. bitching at Amuro until he mans up and flies again. Not to mention the missed oppertunity of having her interact with her brother regarding his new lifestyle. Kamille and Four’s doomed relationship might have had more impact if they had spent more than two in universe hours together, essentially bitching about how lame their respective organisations are. And when compared to the original series, Amuro and Lalah did it better, and with far more pathos.

Its been far from awful, but considering the level Zeta is built up to in fan recognition I expected a bit more in the first 20 episodes than the Titans fucking up operation after operation. And the most fun I’ve had is when the show reminds me of the original series. I just want the show to step out of 0079’s shadow and become its own beast, a promise which the next thirty episodes seem to reign in on. I’ll quit my bitching till I’ve sen it through to the end, and can appreciate Zeta entirely on its own merits. Things can only get better etc.

And as for your Jerid love… is it the fail? Cause that guy is just one walking ball of fail. Its kind of funny how everything he touches just turns to shit, a very refreshing change for a Gundam rival after Char effortlessly stealing the spotlight from Amuro.

The key difference here is that I really didn’t think much of the Gundam TV series, having found a better expression of the core story in the movie trilogy. The Z episodes on the other hand really captured my imagination. Don’t get me wrong though, at the end of the day I think the original story expressed in Mobile Suit Gundam made for the apotheosis of real robot anime. I’ll have to express this in full one of these days. I just find everything about Z to be of a more arresting, intriguing and fascinating step forward.

Four x Kamille >>>> Lalah x Amuro any day. Date in Hong Kong >>>>>>> that trippy shit in Texas Colony. Not even close, and there’s more to come. You got your head in the wrong place about the original cast, now that Z has done its job in remembering love for them, it’s time for their special brand of failure. Yes, failure. It’s because this is what Z Gundam is great at: everybody failing, in awesome, spectacular ways.

0079’s shadow my ass. That TV show was crappy as hell. It has pedigree and 9001 side stories is what. The movies on the other hand, is another story. Still, quantity trumps quality, and 50 episodes of Z > 0079 movies. Gundam the Origin may change all this, but until then!

Yes, the fail! Jerid is KING. In 0079 the fail is still rather subtle for robot anime fans to catch on, but it’s there and it’s delicious. In Z though, it’s front and center, the meat in the hamburger, the trimmings, the sides, FAIL IS EVERYTHING.

Zeta is a huge narrative leap forward… from the TV series. True to form, my last post made no seperation from either the films or the TV show; I suck, and they are VERY different beasts. And the TV show is far more plodding and ungainly in its first half than Zeta is. But I find I prefer the original movie trilogy to Zeta’s first half, though the two are so different that full comparisons are invalid. Zeta wins hands down over the original TV series, but I personally enjoyed the 0079 films far more.

And I’m sorry, but Kamille x Four just pales before Amuro x Lalah. Four was a tragic, amnesiac and emotionally stunted teen soldier the Titans brainwashed and altered beyond any hope of normailty. Kamille loved her, but they only spent a grand total of three hours together. A third of that was a car journey, another was an hour of Four apparently running her hands across some railings, and the last third was them trying to
kill each other. Four died not tearing shit up in a Cyber-Newtype frenzy of psychic energy, but getting shot in he back sending Kamille into space. Somewhat less than epic romance and conflict. No glorious Psycho Gundam rampage, just shot, dead, Kamille mopes for a few episodes before falling back on Fa.

Amuro x Lalah was the full awakening of Amuro’s Newtype potential (shooting down funnels with his uber skills), and it gave his rivalry with Char a genuinely bitter antagonism, providing the fuel for Char’s Counterattack. The drama was delicious; Amuro finally finds true love after sorrowful loss and childish infatuation, he finds the girl that will define his existence… and he kills her. The most pure, beautiful, shining example of humanity’s new dawn, and he beam sabers her in half. All the growth he underwent, the hardships and the lonliness, it all lead up to this. And then they have glorious hippy space magic mind sex, which was pretty funky. It just forever defined a fundemental tenant of the series, and Kamille and Four was an insipid, underdeveloped reheat of that concept.

Episode 25 now, and I am quickly eating my own words. Scirocco gives Jerid the chance to make an ass of himself and openly laughs behind his back about it, signs contracts in his own blood and calling Mouar a shotacon. Hello Yazan, bye bye Jamaican, your porn stache and infantile grasp of military tactics shall be missed. Cool new suits, Bright getting his slap on, and Emma saying she doesn’t want to be a mother substitute for Kamille lol. I’m going to start a tally of all the times Katz should have been executed for incompetence, it’ll make the bit when Yazan shove him into an asteroid all the sweeter. Zeta’s first half failed to grab me, the second half makes me understand why people praise it so.